Tuesday, July 29, 2014

We love to go to Almont, CO for vacation in Taylor Canyon. Almont sits between Crested Butte and Gunnison. We enjoy spending time in all 3 areas while on vacation.

This was our 3rd time to vacation in the area and it will be our most memorable vacation of our lives.

We arrived in the mountains on July 5th and everything was going perfectly. The morning of the 10th I traveled to Crested Butte for the Wildflower Festival. I signed up for a wildflower photo outing. Afterwards, I decided to grab a bite to eat and some roadside cherries before heading back to our cabin at Harmel’s in Almont.

I arrived back to the cabin and decided to eat some of the cherries that I bought. I then showed my husband the photos I took and we all hung out at the cabin for a little bit. My husband and son decided to go throw the football up at the lodge in the grassy field. I was going to stay and edit a few photos.

When they left, my stomach started acting up and I thought I had eaten too many cherries. Then I vomited violently and then my severe pain began in my abdomen. It got so bad I could hardly move. I was sweating profusely and felt delirious. My husband and son came back and found me moaning and rolling around on the floor. My husband is a firefighter and he checked my pulse and couldn’t find one. He rushed me to the Gunnison (population 2000) to the hospital.

I suffered one hour of pain before arriving to the hospital and another 4 hours while getting diagnosed and then waiting for surgery. They gave me morphine, fentanyl and something else while I was there. NONE of it worked. I thought I might lose my mind. Finally a CT scan showed my intestines were enlarged and in trouble. Luckily a surgeon that is looking to move to Colorado was working at the hospital that week. She was the only one who could do the surgery. No one else knew what to do. If she was not there it would have been really really bad. My intestines were twisted 8 times and strangulated. They were dying and about to burst. Traveling to another hospital to have the surgery would probably been a death sentence for me.

My lifesaver/surgeon just happens to be Dr. Good. Very fitting. She saved my life. She thought I would have to get a colostomy bag, but I did not. I am still recovering and getting stronger every day. I spent 6 days in the hospital after surgery and I have been back in Texas resting and getting better.

My intestines twisted because I am missing ligaments that should have held them in place.

The photo below shows me after surgery with my GN tube; my first shower after several days in the hospital bed; when I finally felt like putting on makeup and clothes and finally my husband and I celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary on July 26th.